There are still a ton of tasks to complete on the airplane but I've started the last untouched item on my RV-10 plans, the wheel pants and gear leg fairings. These little buggers are particularly "fun" because they have to be aligned perfectly for the airplane to fly cleanly. That requires jacking up the airplane at the spar to level the fuselage both laterally as well as longitudinally. Once its up on jacks you have to snap a chalk-line on the garage floor that is in the exact center of the fuselage. Then you use that snap line to measure out and align the wheel fairings. Oh and don't forget that your garage floor has a built in slope (for water drainage) that you have to adjust for so that the trailing edge of the wheel pants are parallel with the airstream in flight! Sometimes it really feels like I am rubbing my tummy and patting my head while doing the boot scoot boogie. :-)
Ok, anyway this is a pretty fun stage and there are a ton of other smaller projects that I managed to accomplish in the past couple of weeks. Including....
- Replaced #2 cylinder injector boss. There was an issue with the fit that needed remedied.
- Printed up and installed some ABS spark plug wire separators. Since I'm using auto plugs the wires are not shielded like aviation plug wires so they need to be separated from each other as well as other metal objects.
- Installed some heater hoses, and ordered more scat hose since I didn't have nearly enough.
- Fabricated and installed the spark plug wires and the lower plugs.
- Installed the backup battery on the firewall.
- Installed the oil cooler scat hose.
Ok, on with the pictures.
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| Plug wires cut to length, terminated, and routed with some wax corded separators installed. The 3D printed separators are not installed in this picture. |
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| This is the first wheel pant I started with. I realized early on that holding the wheel pant in position long term is going to be key to getting these things aligned properly. So I fabricated wooden jig with 1/8" holes in each end. Then I drilled 1/8" holes in the exact center or the front and rear wheel pant halves. I used a drill bit on both ends to hold the pant in place, measured until I was happy with the location, and then I marked my garage floor with a pen at a few locations on the base of my jig. This allowed me to move the jig and return it to the proper location each time. These wheel pants were installed and removed many times (with more to come) so these marks were helpful in making sure I was in the same spot each time. |
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| Exciting huh! That was the first hole I drilled and you can see the LED light I used to locate it. |
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| The plans call for a 1.25" block to hold the wheel pant up off of the tire while the fitting process occurs. I used my 3D printer to print up a block just for fun. I could have used the table saw to cut a piece of 2x4 down but this worked and was much easier to get to. |
